Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae

Objection 1: It seems that children should not be baptized. For the intention to receive the sacrament is required in one who is being baptized, as stated above (Article 7). But children cannot have such an intention, since they have not the use of free-will. Therefore it seems that they cannot receive the sacrament of Baptism.

Objection 2: Further, Baptism is the sacrament of faith, as stated above (Question 39, Article 5; Question 66, Article 1, ad 1). But children have not faith, which demands an act of the will on the part of the believer, as Augustine says (Super Joan. xxvi). Nor can it be said that their salvation is implied in the faith of their parents; since the latter are sometimes unbelievers, and their unbelief would conduce rather to the damnation of their children. Therefore it seems that children cannot be baptized.

Objection 3: Further, it is written (1 Pt. 3:21) that "Baptism saveth" men; "not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the examination of a good conscience towards God." But children have no conscience, either good or bad, since they have not the use of reason: nor can they be fittingly examined, since they understand not. Therefore children should not be baptized.

On the contrary, Dionysius says (Eccl. Hier. iii): "Our heavenly guides," i.e. the Apostles, "approved of infants being admitted to Baptism."

I answer that, As the Apostle says (Rm. 5:17), "if by one man's offense death reigned through one," namely Adam, "much more they who receive abundance of grace, and of the gift, and of justice, shall reign in life through one, Jesus Christ." Now children contract original sin from the sin of Adam; which is made clear by the fact that they are under the ban of death, which "passed upon all" on account of the sin of the first man, as the Apostle says in the same passage (Rm. 5:12). Much more, therefore, can children receive grace through Christ, so as to reign in eternal life. But our Lord Himself said (Jn. 3:5): "Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Consequently it became necessary to baptize children, that, as in birth they incurred damnation through Adam so in a second birth they might obtain salvation through Christ. Moreover it was fitting that children should receive Baptism, in order that being reared from childhood in things pertaining to the Christian mode of life, they may the more easily persevere therein; according to Prov. 22:5: "A young man according to his way, even when he is old, he will not depart from it." This reason is also given by Dionysius (Eccl. Hier. iii).

Reply to Objection 1: The spiritual regeneration effected by Baptism is somewhat like carnal birth, in this respect, that as the child while in the mother's womb receives nourishment not independently, but through the nourishment of its mother, so also children before the use of reason, being as it were in the womb of their mother the Church, receive salvation not by their own act, but by the act of the Church. Hence Augustine says (De Pecc. Merit. et Remiss. i): "The Church, our mother, offers her maternal mouth for her children, that they may imbibe the sacred mysteries: for they cannot as yet with their own hearts believe unto justice, nor with their own mouths confess unto salvation . . . And if they are rightly said to believe, because in a certain fashion they make profession of faith by the words of their sponsors, why should they not also be said to repent, since by the words of those same sponsors they evidence their renunciation of the devil and this world?" For the same reason they can be said to intend, not by their own act of intention, since at times they struggle and cry; but by the act of those who bring them to be baptized.

Reply to Objection 2: As Augustine says, writing to Boniface (Cont. duas Ep. Pelag. i), "in the Church of our Saviour little children believe through others, just as they contracted from others those sins which are remitted in Baptism." Nor is it a hindrance to their salvation if their parents be unbelievers, because, as Augustine says, writing to the same Boniface (Ep. xcviii), "little children are offered that they may receive grace in their souls, not so much from the hands of those that carry them (yet from these too, if they be good and faithful) as from the whole company of the saints and the faithful. For they are rightly considered to be offered by those who are pleased at their being offered, and by whose charity they are united in communion with the Holy Ghost." And the unbelief of their own parents, even if after Baptism these strive to infect them with the worship of demons, hurts not the children. For as Augustine says (Cont. duas Ep. Pelag. i) "when once the child has been begotten by the will of others, he cannot subsequently be held by the bonds of another's sin so long as he consent not with his will, according to" Ezech. 18:4: "'As the soul of the Father, so also the soul of the son is mine; the soul that sinneth, the same shall die.' Yet he contracted from Adam that which was loosed by the grace of this sacrament, because as yet he was not endowed with a separate existence." But the faith of one, indeed of the whole Church, profits the child through the operation of the Holy Ghost, Who unites the Church together, and communicates the goods of one member to another.

Reply to Objection 3: Just as a child, when he is being baptized, believes not by himself but by others, so is he examined not by himself but through others, and these in answer confess the Church's faith in the child's stead, who is aggregated to this faith by the sacrament of faith. And the child acquires a good conscience in himself, not indeed as to the act, but as to the habit, by sanctifying grace.

Articulus 9

Argumentum 1

Ad nonum sic proceditur. Videtur quod pueri non sint baptizandi.

In eo enim qui baptizatur requiritur intentio suscipiendi sacramentum, ut supra dictum est.

Huiusmodi autem intentionem non possunt pueri habere, cum non habeant usum liberi arbitrii.

Ergo videtur quod non possint suscipere sacramentum baptismi.

Argumentum 2

Praeterea, baptismus est fidei sacramentum, ut supra dictum est.

Sed pueri non habent fidem, quae consistit in credentium voluntate, ut Augustinus dicit, super Ioan..

Nec etiam potest dici quod salventur in fide parentum, quia quandoque parentes sunt infideles, et sic magis per eorum infidelitatem damnarentur.

Ergo videtur quod pueri non possint baptizari.

Argumentum 3

Praeterea, I Pet. III dicitur quod homines salvos facit baptisma, non carnis depositio sordium, sed conscientiae bonae interrogatio in deum.

Sed pueri neque conscientiam habent bonam vel malam, cum non habeant usum rationis, neque etiam convenienter ipsi interrogantur cum non intelligant. Ergo non debent pueri baptizari.

Sed Contra

Sed contra est quod dionysius dicit, ult. Cap. Eccl. Hier., divini nostri duces, scilicet apostoli, probaverunt infantes recipi ad baptismum.

Corpus

Respondeo dicendum quod, sicut apostolus dicit, Rom. V, si unius delicto mors regnavit per unum, scilicet per Adam, multo magis abundantiam gratiae et donationis et iustitiae accipientes in vita regnabunt per unum, iesum christum.

Pueri autem ex peccato Adae peccatum originale contrahunt, quod patet ex hoc quod sunt mortalitati subiecti, quae per peccatum primi hominis in omnes pertransiit, ut ibidem apostolus dicit.

Unde multo magis pueri possunt per christum gratiam suscipere, ut regnent in vita aeterna.

Ipse autem dominus dicit, Ioan. III, nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et spiritu sancto, non potest introire in regnum dei.

Unde necessarium fuit pueros baptizare, ut, sicut per Adam damnationem incurrerunt nascendo, ita per christum salutem consequantur renascendo. Fuit etiam conveniens pueros baptizari ut a pueritia nutriti in his quae sunt christianae vitae, firmius in ea perseverent, iuxta illud Prov. XXII, adolescens iuxta viam suam, etiam cum senuerit, non recedet ab ea.

Et hanc rationem assignat dionysius, ult. Cap. Eccl. Hier..

Ad 1

Ad primum ergo dicendum quod regeneratio spiritualis, quae fit per baptismum, quodammodo similis est nativitati carnali, quantum ad hoc quod, sicut pueri in maternis uteris constituti non per seipsos nutrimentum accipiunt, sed ex nutrimento matris sustentantur, ita etiam pueri non habentes usum rationis, quasi in utero matris ecclesiae constituti, non per seipsos, sed per actum ecclesiae salutem suscipiunt.

Unde Augustinus dicit, in libro de peccatorum meritis et remiss., mater ecclesia os maternum parvulis praebet, ut sacris mysteriis imbuantur, quia nondum possunt corde proprio credere ad iustitiam, nec ore proprio confiteri ad salutem. Si autem propterea recte fideles vocantur quoniam fidem per verba gestantium quodammodo profitentur, cur etiam non poenitentes habeantur, cum per eorundem verba gestantium diabolo et huic saeculo abrenuntiare monstrentur? et eadem ratione possunt dici intendentes, non per actum propriae intentionis, cum ipsi quandoque contranitantur et plorent, sed per actum eorum a quibus offeruntur.

Ad 2

Ad secundum dicendum quod, sicut Augustinus, scribens bonifacio, dicit, in ecclesia salvatoris parvuli per alios credunt, sicut ex aliis quae in baptismo remittuntur peccata traxerunt.

Nec impeditur eorum salus si parentes sint infideles, quia, sicut Augustinus dicit, eidem bonifacio scribens, offeruntur parvuli ad percipiendam spiritualem gratiam, non tam ab eis quorum gestantur manibus (quamvis et ab ipsis, si et ipsi boni fideles sunt), quam ab universa societate sanctorum atque fidelium. Ab omnibus namque offerri recte intelliguntur, quibus placet quod offeruntur, et quorum caritate ad communionem sancti spiritus adiunguntur.

Infidelitas autem propriorum parentum, etiam si eos post baptismum Daemoniorum sacrificiis imbuere conentur, pueris non nocet.

Quia, ut ibidem Augustinus dicit, puer semel generatus per aliorum voluntatem, deinceps non potest vinculo alienae iniquitatis obstringi, ubi nulla sua voluntate consentit, secundum illud, Ezech. XVIII, sicut anima patris mea est, et anima filii, anima quae peccaverit, ipsa morietur. Sed ideo ex Adam traxit quod sacramenti illius gratia solveretur, quia nondum erat anima separata vivens.

Fides autem unius, immo totius ecclesiae, parvulo prodest per operationem spiritus sancti, qui unit ecclesiam et bona unius alteri communicat.

Ad 3

Ad tertium dicendum quod, sicut puer, cum baptizatur, non per seipsum, sed per alios credit; ita non per seipsum, sed per alios interrogatur, et interrogati confitentur fidem ecclesiae in persona pueri, qui huic fidei aggregatur per fidei sacramentum.

Conscientiam autem bonam consequitur puer etiam in seipso, non quidem actu, sed habitu, per gratiam iustificantem.